


hell hath no fury like a child scorned

by princelogical



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 08:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16869310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princelogical/pseuds/princelogical
Summary: If anyone asks, Virgil tried to be Parker’s friend.or.It’s a fine line between love and fear.





	hell hath no fury like a child scorned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xaandiir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaandiir/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Silence and Duality](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462142) by [xaandiir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaandiir/pseuds/xaandiir). 



> My entry for @parkersanders SAD competition thingy! :D

“Got any threes?”

“Go fish!”

Logan  _humpfs_  impatiently and Parker giggles as Logan reaches forward and picks up a card from the middle. “I am not fond of this game,” Logan says, as if it isn’t written all over his face.

“Get over it,” Virgil grumbles tiredly. “It’s all Princey and he wanna play.”

“Got any sixes?” Roman asks.

“Go fish!” Parker calls out with glee. Patton watches on fondly, chin in his palms. Logan just sighs again.

“May I stop?”

“But Logan,” Parker stresses. He grabs Logan’s wrist and Virgil doesn’t miss the flinch as Logan quickly pulls his wrist away. “Please; you’ll ruin the game if you go!”

“This is nonsense. There are more serious matters to attend to.”

Parker pouts his lower lip out. “Oh, c’mon, Logan!”

“It’s… it’s too childish.” Logan stands up in all his seven year old glory and sets his cards down. “Have fun, Parker.”

Parker crosses his arms and Virgil swears he hears him mumble, “He’s just scared of looking silly.”

Virgil slides over and picks up Logan’s hand. “I can play. I guess.”

Parker’s eyes brighten. “Really?”

“Sure,” Virgil says with a shrug. “’S whatever.”

Patton watches on proudly, looking as if he wants to say something. Roman interrupts, “Let’s get on already! The fish are going to die of boredom.”

“Fish can’t die of boredom,” Logan says from the doorway before he leaves. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible for someone to die o-“

“Got any fives?” Parker asks, successfully cutting Logan off.

“Go fish!”

.-.

It is late in the evening and Logan sits on a chair, his back straight like a ruler. Virgil and Parker watch on with wide, curious eyes.

“He’s reading something,” Parker whispers.

“I see that,” Virgil mumbles.

The book Logan holds slowly lowers to the table and he jerks it back, looking around frantically. Then, he slowly slumps in the chair, eyes sliding shut.

“We should scare him.”

Virgil startles. “Really?”

Parker grins excitedly. “Not mean kind of scare- fun kind of scare. Just startle him a little.”

“What if he hates us?”

Parker punches his shoulder lightly and smiles. “It’ll be fine. Patton doesn’t hate us when we scare him.”

“Patton doesn’t even get scared. He just pretends.”

“Patton does too get scared,” Parker says with a frown. “I’ve seen him get scared.”

“When?” Virgil asks.

Parker rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Are we gonna scare Logan or not?”

“Fine,” Virgil mumbles. “I guess.”

Parker smirks and tip-toes across the floor, Virgil watching on as he chews on his thumb. He feels his heart hammering in his chest as Parker reaches out, eyes gleaming, and then jolts his fingers forward to Logan’s shoulder blade. Logan shrieks in surprise and dives out of his chair, face-planting on the floor.

Virgil darts forward worriedly. “Oh no, did we hurt him? Is he bleeding? Oh shoot, he’s bleeding-”

“He’s not bleeding,” Parker assures, stilling grinning.

Logan pushes himself up, sleepy tears starting to grow in his eyes. “That was mean,” he says.

“I wasn’t trying to be mean-”

“You were scaring me,” Logan snaps. He snatches up his book and tucks it tightly to his chest. “You shouldn’t scare people.”

The grin was slowly dropping from Parker’s face. “I am fear.”

Logan huffs. “So? You should try to help people not be scared, not scare them.”

“I wasn’t trying to-“

“It’s fine. Just don’t do it again.” Logan marches off, rubbing his arm in an almost self-soothing manner.

“I wasn’t trying to be mean,” Parker says, tears brimming his eyes. He stares Virgil dead in the eyes. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Virgil grabs his arm and tugs gently. “Let’s find Patton; he’ll play something fun with us.”

.-.

Parker likes to play pretend, almost as much as Roman, which often results in the two playing together, along with Patton, while Logan reads and Virgil watches on, waiting for the inevitable moment to be invited in. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he kind of looks forward to that moment.

“Come in, Virgil! We need a supervillain!”

“I don’t wanna play the villain,” Virgil grumbles, but he still pushes himself up by the heels of his hands and walks over to the three.

“Fine. I’ll be the villain!” Parker cries. “But a nice villain.”

Roman frowns. “Isn’t that a oxy- a opitodimoro- a oxygen moron?”

“Oxymoron,” Logan corrects from his book.

“What kind of a word is that?” Virgil asks. “It sounds like medicine. I hate medicine.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Parker says. “I’m a good villain. Roman thinks I’m a bad guy because I let loose the dragon witches! But- I’m a good villain, because actually, the dragon witches are good and I’m the king of dragon witches!”

Virgil blinks uncomprehendingly, staring at Parker. Eventually, he says, “Okay. Who do I get to be?”

“My sidekick!” Parker says. “Roman and Patton can be superhero buddies.”

The two high five as if that was what they had wanted all along. It quickly becomes a mess of sword-fighting, Parker pretending his cape is magic, and Patton accidentally whacking Logan’s book six times until they eventually forget who is the villain and who is the superheroes and they just begin swinging their Styrofoam swords at each other, screeching and giggling.

Then, they’re suddenly being called to the physical plane where Thomas stares in terror at a paint can dangerously beginning to tip from a counter.

“Thomas catch it!” Logan shouts.

“Move away!” Parker yells, even louder.

“No!” Logan cries desperately. “Thomas grab-” the paint can smashes against the floor as Thomas jerks out of the way. The blue paint begins to slosh across the kitchen tiles. Thomas bursts into tears.

“No, no,” Patton says, instantly trying to soothe Thomas.

Virgil frowns at the mess. Then, his heart starts to race. “We need to clean this up before his parents find out!”

“Yes,” Parker says, nodding his head. “Now. C’mon, guys.”

“No, they’ll find out anyway,” Logan tries, but Virgil is already kneeling down, wiping the floor.

Parker kneels down next to him. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles. “I panicked.”

“’S okay,” Virgil says, ripping off six more sheets of paper towels and throws them on top of the mess. “We should’ve listened to Logan then, huh?”

Parker stares at his paper towel, which slowly soaks through onto his fingers. “Maybe.”

.-.

There’s buildup; Thomas doesn’t complete his homework, because he’s afraid he’ll do badly. He doesn’t talk as much in class, because he doesn’t want to sound silly. He flinches when the car starts or the doorbell rings. Fireworks no longer excite him; he only squeezes his mom’s hand until it looks as if it’ll fall off. Then the big  _incident_ happens and Virgil’s too scared himself to even pay attention to the mess happening with Parker as Patton desperately tries to calm them down.

Then they’re all discussing things and while  _yes_ , something needs to be down about Parker, Virgil’s pretty sure it’s not  _this_. But they don’t give him time; they consider him part of the problem, even though he’s only trying to bring them to their senses.

Even once Parker and Virgil are thrown in the prison and even when the nightmares are terrible and ruthless, making Virgil feel even more unhinged, he tries to comfort Parker. He tries to get Parker on his side. But Parker is so set on hating  _everything_  that it feels as if all his attempts are useless and pathetic.

So day in and day out, everything is miserable. Virgil doesn’t want to say he gives up hope, but yeah. That’s kind of what it is.

.-.

Parker escapes and it’s the biggest damn mess Virgil has ever witnessed in his entire life. He feels like he should have expected it; it wasn’t like they could shove Parker away forever and just expect him to… what? Vanish? Cease to exist? No, Parker comes back with a vengeance that tears Virgil’s heart in to millions of shreds. Because he wonders if he hadn’t been let out when he was, would he have grown to hate them as much as Parker does?

But things become… okay. Not okay, but the closest to okay that they can be. Parker’s changed. He’s not Fear anymore; he’s Sadness. And somehow… Somehow, that hurts Virgil. Virgil thinks…  _ ~~maybe if he had done **something**  it wouldn’t be this way.~~_

.-.

“I’m missing my sword.”

Virgil scowls, removing his headphones to glare at Roman. “You brought me out of my room for that?”

Roman places a hand to his chest. “Yes. I’m missing my sword and it’s very important I find it, so I’d appreciate it if you’d help me out here.” Virgil gives a sarcastic thumbs up, but he doesn’t sink down, so Roman continues. “Who had it last?”

“You,” Logan says with a sigh. “Perhaps if you retraced your steps you might come up with some logical explanation for its absence.”

“Well… Morality was admiring it earlier!”

Patton grins. “Sure was, kiddo! But then I saw Virgil looking at it.”

“Do not bring me into this, I didn’t touch it.”

“Well…” Roman trails off. “Parker!”

Parker appears, looking surprised and looks around him, meeting each of their eyes individually, as if calculating a reaction. His hands are shoved deep into the pockets of his hoody and his shoulders hunched against his ears. “Uhm… What?”

“We’re trying to find my sword.” It doesn’t go past Virgil how Roman makes an effort to sound softer, more inclusive. “I thought, perhaps you could help.”

“Oh,” Parker says. “Yeah. Okay.”

Virgil watches him carefully; he looks uncomfortable. Maybe even a little scared, similar to when they were younger. It makes Virgil’s heart flop in his throat. He coughs and says, “Well, we won’t find it by sitting around talking. We should look a little. Split up-”

“Into teams!” Patton shouts.

“Wait- we have an uneven number-” Virgil begins.

“I can just go,” Parker says awkwardly, sticking his thumb out behind him.

“No!” Patton says. “No, not if Thomas helps!”

“All over a sword,” Logan says with a sigh. “But I suppose that does provide a sufficient solution.”

“I call Logan!” Patton cries, grabbing Logan’s arm. Logan sighs, but a small smirk presses against his lips.

“I call Thomas!” Roman yells. “Dibs! Dibs!”

Virgil meets Parker’s eyes. Parker looks down. “I guess we’re a pair then,” Parker says.

“Yeah.”

Parker looks back up. “I hope you don’t mind… me trying to participate.”

“I don’t,” Virgil says as Patton runs off, dragging Logan along with him. “I’m glad-” Virgil sighs. “I’m glad we’re making progress. All of us.”

Parker shrugs. “Yeah. Me too.” He kicks the floor below him lightly, scuffing his heels.

“Can I let you in on a secret?” Virgil asks. He doesn’t miss the little light that shines in Parker’s eyes at the words. It feels kind of like old times; when Virgil and Parker were two peas in a pod and shared everything with each other.

“Yeah.”

“I hid Princey’s sword.”

Parker’s eyes widen and slowly, a small smirk covers his face. “You- What?”

“I hid his sword. He took one of my posters the other week, thinking I wouldn’t notice. How long do you think it’ll take him to figure it was me?”

Parker laughs. “It depends on how good of an actor you are.”

“You’ll back me up, right?” Virgil asks; it’s a light playfulness that feels like a stark contrast to the weeks before.  Part of it feels wrong. Another part feels right. Virgil doesn’t know which to trust.

“Of course,” Parker says. He looks just as nervous about it as Virgil feels. Things will never go back to being how they once were; they’re not kids anymore. The world is so much bigger and they’ve been through too much to blink and everything be okay. But they’re getting better. They’re trying. They’re striving for things to be okay. They are.  

It’s hesitant; it’s scary. But at least it’s progress.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr's doing wacky shit with my blog and I can't see half my posts now. :( So I'm putting a lot of my crap here to archive because I don't wanna lose it.


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